Virginia Politics Blog Archive: 2009 Attorney General's Race

U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson, who Monday ruled a key provision of the federal health care law is unconstitutional, moderated a debate a year ago between Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli and Democratic opponent Steve Shannon.

For more than two years, State Sen. Richard Stuart (R) has been voting in a county in which he does not live. State law says Virginians must vote where they reside except in rare cases when a person moves temporarily and is allowed to maintain a previous address for voting until the next general election for federal office but only if he remains in the same congressional district and has notified electon officials at a polling place. Stuart, elected in 2007, lived in the Montross area of Westmoreland County, but moved to Stafford County soon after he sworn into office in January 2008. Both counties are in his senatorial district. Voting records obtained by The Washington Post show Stuart voted in Montross in both 2008 and 2009. Stuart acknowledged in an interview last week that he did not change his voter registration because he voted in Montross for years, and...

Here at the Virginia Politics blog, we thought we would take one last look at 2009 before officially welcoming in the new year. And what a year it was in Virginia politics. We had a nationally watched race for the state's top job, a sitting governor who became a national figure and a divided legislature that struggled with a multibillion budget shortfall. Virginia became the first state in the nation to reject federal stimulus money for the unemployed and the last one to ask for federal stimulus money for transportation. Democrats started the year out on top and ended the year in disarray. Republicans are on the cusp of a resurgence they could not have imagined 12 months ago. We know Bob McDonnell had a tremendous year, and Creigh Deeds not so much. Ditto for their campaign managers, Phil Cox and Joe Abbey. Who else had a great or lousy...

Despite the recession, this year's election cycle had four of the five most expensive delegate races in Virginia history, including a $1.71 million battle between Del. Dave Albo (R) and challenger Greg Werkheiser in Fairfax that gets the award for most expensive ever. That's according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan tracker of money in politics, which has been doing number crunching on finance reports submitted by campaigns last week. The second most expensive race in state history was the contest between newly elected Del. Chris Stolle and incumbent Democrat Joe Bouchard in Virginia Beach, who jointly spent $1.53 million on the race....

Republicans are calling on Del. Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax) to resign from the House of Delegates as he runs in a special election for the state Senate seat being vacated by Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli. OurVirginiaNow, a new state political action committee that aims to help Republican candidates get elected across the state, is encouraging district residents to contact Marsden and ask him to resign. "I think Marsden ought to resign his House seat immediately,'' said Paul Miller, president of OurVirginiaNow. "He owes us that. He was elected to produce results for his constituents, not continue to seek other elected positions he may deem more attractive for his career." If Marsden wins the Jan. 12 election, the governor would have to call a special election to fill his House seat, which would leave the 41st District without representation for some time when the General Assembly reconvenes Jan. 13. OurVirginiaNow also complains...

Ken Cuccinelli, who was elected the state's new attorney general Tuesday, announced today that his transition will be led by a pair of former attorneys general -- Democrat Andrew Miller and Republican Richard Cullen -- along with former state GOP chairman Pat McSweeney. Miller who ran for governor and U.S. Senate in the 1970s is a lawyer in Washington. Cullen completed Jim Gilmore's term as attorney general when he resigned to run for governor and now heads the McGuire Woods law firm in Richmond. He is close to Governor-elect Bob McDonnell. McSweeney in a Richmond lawyer who challenged the constitutionality of a proposed transportation sales-tax referendum and the state's 2007 landmark transportation plan, including its high fees for egregious driving offenses. Republican Bernie McNamee was named transition director. McNamee is Cullen's law partner and a lobbyist who worked for former attorney general Jerry Kilgore and former Gov. George Allen....